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GEOGRAPHY OF MULTILINGUALISM OF PEOPLES OF KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE LATE 19TH TO THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2019. Issue 1 (23). P. 69-82

The paper opens a cycle of articles concerned to the emergence and development of multilingualism of peoples inhabited Kolyma-Alazeia tundra, the region where Yukaghir, Even, Chukchi, Yakut and Russian areas intersected. One of these peoples will be a starting point of investigation in each article of the cycle. The starting point of this paper is Chukchi, their arrival to the area mentioned, their contacts with neighbours, the languages they spoke. The pasture areas of Chukchi in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries were discovered on base of the sources (works of anthropologists, travelers, missionaries). As a result, the area in Kolyma-Alazeia tundra inhabited by Chukchi was in the first time mapped in every detail. Besides, the places where Chukchi contacted to the neighboring peoples and languages probably used there were specified. One of the important places for contacts were seasonal fairs which were mapped as full as possible. The evaluation of the data led to the conclusion that in the Western part of the area the Chukchi were multilingual despite the fact that they possessed large reindeer herds and hold higher economic position comparing to other inhabitants of the region discussed. In the same time, that in the Eastern part of the area the Chukchi kept traditional monolingualism and often did not speak even Russian, using Chukchi-Russian jargon to communicate to the Russian-speaking population. The possible reasons for emergence of multilingualism in the Western area were large amount of interethnic marriages and the fact that many Evens and Yukaghirs sought to live near or with the rich Chukchi. The eastern monolingualism was apparently supported by close contacts with Chukchi of “Chukotskaya zemlitsa” predominantly monoethnic area. The exact situation in some interjacent areas is not quite clear due to scarcity of sources.

Keywords: multilingualism, Chukchi language, historical sociolinguistics, language maps, Kolyma- Alazeia tundra

GEOGRAPHY OF MULTILINGUALISM OF PEOPLES OF KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE LATE 19TH TO THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2020. Issue 1 (27). P. 44-60

This study is the second one in a series of studies devoted to the emergence and development of multilingualism in the Kolyma-Alazeya tundra area, a region where the territories of Yukaghir, Even, Chukchi, Yakut, and Russian settlements overlap. The starting point of this study are Evens, their arrival to the area, their contacts with the neighbors, and the languages they spoke. Based on the various sources (the works and reports of ethnographers, travelers, and missioners) we trace the migration routes of Even nomadic groups from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries in this region. We discovered that the Even clans found to the west of Kolyma spoke Yukaghir and most of them considered Yukaghir to be their native language. Apparently, many Evens spoke two languages (Even and Yukaghir), some of them were trilingual (in Even, Yukaghir and Yakut), and quatrolingualism and quintolingualims were also attested. There were also some nomadic Even groups near the Southeastern border of Kolyma-Alazeya tundra, and there is evidence that some of their members could speak Chukchi, Even and Russian. The article briefly compares two dialects of Even which are spread out in the west and east of this region. This comparison confirms intensive language contact between Evens, Yukaghirs, and Yakuts in the Great Western Tundra in the past. At the same time, we did not observe any Chukchi influence in the dialect of the Eastern part of Kolyma-Alazeya tundra.

Keywords: multilingualism, Even language, historical sociolinguistics, language maps, Kolyma-Alazeya tundra

MAPPING SPECIFICS OF LANGUAGES OF NOMADIC PEOPLES IN CIRCUMPOLAR AREAS OF EURASIA // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2020. Issue 2 (28). P. 30-45

This study concerns with the main difficulties connected to the mapping of the nomadic peoples and their languages compared to the mapping of the sedentary peoples and languages. Among those difficulties are huge areas with no clear borders between them, very low population density, high personal, family and seasonal mobility, overlapping of winter pastures of one ethnic groups with summer pastures of another groups, transition of migration routes might through other group area, extensive multilingualism and lack of data. Quite surprisingly for an outside observer, the most part of Eurasian Circumpolar area were inhabited until recently by nomadic or semi-nomadic groups. Several types of life-styles are defined in the article: full (whole-family) nomadic pastoralism with herds of domestic reindeer, partial (male only) nomadic pastoralism with herds of domestic reindeer; (nomadic) hunting and gathering (sometimes together with occasional nomadic pastoralism). During Soviet period many of nomadic ethnic groups switched to mostly sedentary style of life. In the article, the history of cartography of peoples and languages of Russian North in 19th –20th centuries is shown. Then the existing sources for modern maps are discussed. Finally, a several ways of visualisation are proposed which let us show adequately not only nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups but also their languages. Those ways are illustrated with maps.

Keywords: mapping, Circumpolar languages, Arctic, Northern peoples, nomads, reindeer husbandry, tundra